still going
I bowhunt deer, whitetails, and have never traveled to do it. I'm a bowhunter first, but do kill some with a rifle, especially if the season is slow. AL archery deer season is over 100 days long, and most areas are 2 deer a day. Some years I run out of freezer space, other years, I work hard just to kill 1. I'll get 40 -50 hunts in a season. Most years I pass more shots than I take. I miss a few too. Last year I hunted like a maniac, missed one and killed one w/ a bow, and missed a dandy (twice!) running a doe, with a rifle!
I live very close to a near 50,00 acre public land tract, that allows bow hunting the entire season. and I bowhunt it alot. It has limited gun hunting. Once the gun season comes in, I rarely see another bow hunter, and have never had a conflict with hunting pressure on the WMA bow season, as most guys switch to rifles and hunt elsewhere. And I do not hunt the food plots as most of the other bow- only guys do. It gives me trouble free hunting and I love it.
I bow hunt soley from treestands, climbers mostly. A "put up" stand is a bunch of work and noise, and leaves scent everywhere. I "put up" a few, but not many. I'm still healthy and able enough to hike and climb, and hope to do it for a while longer. I don't miind humping the stand in and out. Sometimes I will put a climber on a tree and leave it if the spot is really back in the woods. I have never lost a stand, nor had indication anybody hunted a stand I'd left, in over 20 yrs.
I do belong to a club or lease as well, about 3000 acres. It has food plots and some shooting houses, and that's good for the bamaboy or me in really bad weather. To keep the lease, we have had to bring on more and more guys,and its gotten kind of crowded, but I keep my membership up. Ya gotta hunt when you can and the plots and houses give me an option (with a firearm).
I an a fanatical spring gobbler hunter. Lord spare me, but if I had to choose only one, I would hang up my deer bow and hunt turkeys in the spring with a shotgun. Al gpbbler season lasts 30-45 days depending on your zone. I had the best season a guy could have last spring with bamaboy killing his first two. I didn't so so bad myself. I will spare all further.
Your hog stories/fees are interesting. I some day hope to go on a paid hog/turkey hunt, in TX with a good friend, if we are still able bodied and can afford it.